Gah!! What is it with people who are not vegetarian and think they know everything about it because they only eat chicken or fish a few days a week?

I’ve been doing this for 25 years or something like that. The first thing you do is swap one protein source for another. We’re all (in the western world) indoctrinated to think like that. We are also indoctrinated to think carbs are bad. They make you fat, contribute to diabetes etc.

But literally, non-vegetarians just swap one protein source for another, without thinking about the whole balance of the meal.

‘Oh, we don’t have meat, fish, chicken, we need to substitute it with a cheese omelette,’ or whatever. Cheese in fact is the favourite one that non-veggies always dish up with a meal. So uninspired and a quick-fix attempt to aspire to something tasty – to them.

And for the record, tofu, seitan, tempeh, legumes, nuts, are NOT meat/protein substitutes. They are old foods that have been kicking around as a part of a basic diet for years. An example of a meat substitute is quorn which I have bored everyone to bits with earlier.

The blunt truth is, if you don’t throw dead animals out of your diet totally, you will never cook a decent vegetarian meal.

But as there are always exceptions to the rule, I will mention my friend (a superb cook) who made a perfect veg wellington for us using chestnuts. Thanks Anne.

Next. John Lennon. I am bored with reading tributes to him. FFS, he was a Beatle and with Paul McNasty he wrote/composed some decent songs. I have loads of their singles.

And as people are bemoaning his death 32 years ago, I looked him up. Horrid piece of work hitting women. I didn’t know any of that, but he certainly won’t be getting any tributes on my blogs. At the end of the day he wasn’t exactly Beethoven who managed to compose far better music when deaf.

There are an awful lot of people being denied human rights every day of this week, being killed, abused, violated whatever. Stop wasting your time bleating about John Lennon (or anyone else) and concern yourselves with starving people or women sold into sex slavery.

I should also add with regard to this that my Partner totally disagrees with me and says I would also have done anything for my job. Hmmm. Well it didn’t come to impersonating the queen so no need to get into that one.

I’m loving the history of these two though. She’s a former model (not sure why) and he had only just started on the station and said he had peaked in his first week. Class!!

Fifth. Really sick of people crossing the border and working for £40 or £50 a day on the black. Seriously.

And as an afterthought, all those toerags who click on like as soon as I have published.

But, go your own way.

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About roughseasinthemed

I write about my life as an English person living in Spain and Gibraltar, on Roughseas, subjects range from politics and current developments in Gib to book reviews, cooking and getting on with life.
My views and thoughts on a variety of topics - depending on my mood of the day - can be found over on Clouds. A few pix are over on Everypic - although it is not a photoblog.
And of course my dog had his own blog, but most of you knew that anyway. Pippadogblog etc

15 Responses to Irrelevant rants

Gosh you are in a bad mood today! If you still lived in the UK you would probably agree with my rant of the day – Scamming MPs still fiddling their expenses!
I’m not sure about the radio prank thing because it is true that people have always done this. Maybe Noel Edmonds was just lucky that no one died after one of his joke calls? I am sure that they didn’t mean the call to have such devastating consequences and if it hadn’t then it would have remained just a prank and no more.

I see what you are saying about it’s only made such high profile news because of Ms Saldanha’s suicide, which is extremely sad in two ways. It ought to make the news because it is sheer rubbish, as you say (we can agree on that one!). And yes, if she hadn’t died, it would just be another light-hearted jokey radio call. But there is a load of hypocrisy going on around the whole story, which to me, is based on the radio station owners trying to save face and ensure damage limitation = lose as little advertising revenue and listeners as possible. Suddenly they claim to have checked with the hospital at least five times that they were happy for the call to be broadcast? At that time, to get permission, they would have had to get someone senior at home to authorise it. And if you don’t get an answer – do you take the default as yes?

Aus journalists, of course they are upset, they’ve just blown their radio careers which for the guy was only a week. I don’t remember any prank phone calls before the 70’s, neither look like they were born then.

I usually avoid commenting on nutritional issues, especially on this blog 🙂 I am however a complete failure when it comes to vegetarian cooking so now if vegetarian friends are visiting I buy in pizza; they get to eat what they want and I get to eat what I want. Several local take away pizza places do dairy free pizza options, as one good friend doesn’t eat cheese.

My brother, a vegetarian, actually likes quorn and certainly used to eat it about 3 times a week. You are absolutely right about quorn, I introduced him to it years ago as I wanted something I could use as a meat substitute so could cook my chicken chasseur as I normally would, just with quorn pieces.

As for meat, I’m with Pippa on that!!! Don’t think I’ve ever had a decent vegetarian meal regardless of whether the chef ate meat or not.

LOL! Yes, that would be my cynical reaction too. I think the woman was 30 earlier this year, and I seem to remember the man is around 25 or mid twenties somewhere. So perhaps to them, radio was invented in the 1970s (rather than 100 years previously) and that’s why they ascribe hoax calls (because that’s what they are – prank is just trying to make them into something ‘fun’) to the birth of radio. I remember The World at One, Listen with Mother, The Archers (back when Shula was my age), and later Money Box. Not too many stupid calls on any of those!

You’re welcome to comment on whatever you want, while the odd vegetarian may occasionally read this, most readers are not. I find reading same-subject blogs pretty dull, so I rarely read veg blogs, and comment on them even less (says she who has just commented on a vegan pizza recipe post!). I like the difference in opinions that comes of having readers with different points of view.

I think describing non-vegetarians as failures at veg cooking is probably generally pretty accurate! It’s not that people are inconsiderate or lack respect for a different diet, they just have no idea where to start. Hence the obsession with throwing cheese at everything! Believe it or not, when people cater for me, I’ll eat whatever they provide on the basis that they have tried, and I have no wish to be rude. On the rare occasion I go out, I’ll opt for a vegan option if there is one, it always tastes better. Nuts are great – but if you are used to cooking with meat and not nuts there is a world of difference. We’ve been to a few class Spanish restaurants as well, where they manage to do excellent fritters and albondigas, for example.

Dairy free pizza sounds great. Not just for vegans, but for people who are lactose intolerant. And if you have people round, it also means you don’t have to cook, so far more social and easier on you I would have thought. I’ve asked for less cheese, or no cheese, but you never get any money knocked off 😦 nor do they add extra olivers/chillies/ or capers to make up for it.

I do chasseur recipes from time to time, if I’m doing ‘chicken’ I tend to use tofu, and if it’s a ‘beef’ one, I use seitan. If I’ve got tempeh in, I often add that too as then you get the contrast in textures as well as flavour. Quorn really doesn’t do it for me. Even though they now use free range eggs (they didn’t originally), I don’t really like either the texture or the taste. Hence on the rare occasion I cook it for a main meal, I try and drown it in sauce eg a hot pepper one to go with ‘peppered steaks’ or a brown/curry/mustard one to go with ‘lamb’. I’ve not used the pieces.

I guess vegetarians cooking for non-vegetarians is a bit like the reverse scenario. It’s hard to cook for someone who would really prefer to be eating flesh, fish or fowl. They’re unlikely to be pleased.

Father naval, his brother merch. Uncle pilot, another in army, and the youngest in the RAF all his life (Wing Co). I don’t know why it has been advertised, it’s invariably a set up for a long serving military (naval) person.

I never knew that info on John Lennon, puts his peace thing off course a bit doesn’t it?
Paul was always my favourite, but I really can’t stand him now, totally past it, he needs to step out of the limelight.

The hoax call was terrible, I just don’t see what the gain was in such a hoax.

Talking of radio stations and phone calls though, have you ever listened to Hold Your Plums from a station in Liverpool. They’re on You Tube, check out ‘drive on the left hand side’ if you want the link, I’ll post it.

I didn’t either. I just read a few people saying what a great musician he was (Um, debatable) and thought I would do a bit more reading around about him. I don’t think he should have been shot, but I don’t think he was that good, and there are more productive things to write about than moaning about someone who died 32 years ago. In fact, I don’t even remember the dates of my parents’ deaths, so there is no way I would be remembering Lennon, Bolan, Winehouse, Cobain, Elvis, Jackson etc. It’s somewhat like the Aus DJs – people are famous for fifteen minutes, but they don’t really leave an amazing legacy to the world. They make money for themselves. Some give some of it away.

I don’t think I had a favourite either in terms of looks, voice or music. It wouldn’t have been Paul though with his pretty-boy face 😀

I used your words ‘hoax call’ in my reply to Blu because that’s what it was. Nicely worded Vic. Had it not had such an unexpected and tragic result, I guess the gain would have been increased listeners for statistics, hence more advertising and revenue. They may be getting increased hits anyway! 😦 me, I just think it was crass, but I’ve never listened to ‘light’ radio anyway, unless Radio Luxembourg counted.

I looked for Hold Your Plums and got a load of black screens. If you’ve got the link that would be good, but maybe it will be one of those I can’t play/listen to here?

Take it as a yes of agreement from me on your topics but I’ll comment on the one closest to my heart – food. I think in general far too much cheese is added to cooked food. In most cases the inclusion of cheese is meant to be a balance or a garnish not produce a greasy dripping mess, and a lot of it is to do also with poor choice of cheese – it just kills any other taste or texture.
There are so many interesting & delicious non meat alternatives and we (well, especially me) eat quite a lot of non meat meals but I don’t consider them vegetarian, or vegan… a menu choice not lifestyle. I can see why it would be frustrating for you. Veg Wellington with chestnuts sounds great – I am going to look for recipe. Celia from Fig Jam & Lime Cordial posted a chestnut soup recipe, and also chestnut chicken & rice – they have have been on my mind.
Oh, and I can’t understand why people click like on your posts & don’t comment. Of course, it happens to me but I think many of my posts are of that type, and I’m ok with it – I’ll take what I can get but if it’s about generating interest in their blog, it doesn’t work because if it’s just a random like, I rarely follow it back.

I’ve noticed how much food topics generate discussion, for example yours on the fish. Everyone has something to say, even about vegetarian food! I’ve had a couple of friends cook open puff pastry for me with cheese on top. It was usually far too rich, and seriously needed something to cut it with. I asked if we could have some salad with it, or I don’t think I could have got it down – so she opened a bag and plonked the leaves on top!! They decided it was a good invention. Then there was cheese for dessert. Another pal did a similar one with two cheeses one of which was blue cheese, I like blue, but it was amazingly strong. I couldn’t manage seconds!! They were better cooks though, at least the salad appeared without being requested. Your description of a greasy dripping mess is a good one, as it often ends up like that, with people using far too much.
I’ve actually never made the veg wellington, sometimes it’s nice not to cook a meal that you enjoyed elsewhere, repeating it takes away the mystery. I do use hazlenuts and almonds though, and I’ve used cashews quite a bit in the past.

As for the likes, when you see the same people doing it all the time to every blog under the sun, it is totally meaningless. That’s one of the reasons I no longer publish likes. They are totally wasting their time as no-one will get to see their self-publiciity. And it is a bit like a beauty contest. Oh look. I’ve got 20/50/100 likes or whatever. So what?